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Precious Energy

1/28/2020

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Are you restless? Antsy? Feel like there is a void in your life? The feeling that you want to do more, that you need to do more? 
Whether it's because of citizens living in poverty, homelessness, the political environment, racial disparities,  sexism, human trafficking, climate change, crime, terrorism...whatever your reasons, our reasons, many of us our feeling restless. 

Part of why I am feeling restless is due to the continuous barrage of negative news. It's exhausting, overwhelming and hard to witness the news reports, endless social media posts, and related verbal commentary. There is a fine line between fueling the fire with anger, having your voice be heard and creating an onslaught of repeated negativity. 

As positive psychology researcher and author Michelle Gielan says, "We can focus on the problem, but it is equally important to move the brain onto discussion of what we can do about it. Getting the brain to see that there is another path forward and that your behavior matters in the face of challenges is the key to unlocking better health and happiness. The more you seek out inspiration and solutions, the more you fuel your success and that of the people around you."

I think we need more action and less reaction. As author Dottie Fuller recently wrote, "I
t is time to educate ourselves. It is time to get re-involved. It is time to make our voices heard proactively the right way, starting where we are. It is not the time to share articles that trigger us with the bait and switch headlines or un-researched, smart-ass memes that create more division." It's time to take action. Action instead of reaction. 

What action might look like for you is something that is personal and for you to decide. It depends on what you are passionate about and where your skills and interests lie. Whatever it is that breaks your heart, that keeps you up at night. 
As Margaret Mead stated, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
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See The Shimmer

1/21/2020

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This time of year can be challenging for a lot of people, especially here in Wisconsin. It's cold, it's dark and the holidays are over. We're hunkered down, hibernating, and there appears to be no end in sight. Everyday life can feel like drudgery as the days are counted toward the light and the warmth. 

I'm definitely not a winter person, I prefer the the warm sunshine and long days. Over time, with intention, I've grown to appreciate the cold and the dark. That's what having a gratitude practice has done for me, it allows me to notice, appreciate and find beauty in the things that I use to just complain about.

Now I focus my attention on, and marvel at, the beauty of the pure white freshly fallen shimmering snow, the icicles glistening in the sunlight, the crackle of the snow and ice beneath my boots, the crisp winter air, the berries still hanging on the trees against the backdrop of the white snow and the bright blue sky. I take it all in and am amazed by its stunning beauty, with the awareness that each day that passes brings with it more light. 

Now I focus my attention on being able to cozy up with a warm cup of tea, wearing my warm fuzzy clothes, changing into my comfy pajamas at 5 in the evening because it's already dark out, sitting by the fireplace, eating comfort foods.

Now I focus on doing a lot of self-reflection, regenerating and renewing. Using the opportunity to look within to the story of my heart. The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge beautifully says it this way, "
The inner life, the story of our heart, is the life of the deep places within us, our passions and dreams, our fears and our deepest wounds. It is the unseen life, the mystery within-what Frederick Buechner calls our 'shimmering self.'" I ask myself...How I am showing up in the world? How I can be of service? What are my intentions? 

I invite you to focus your intention on seeing the shimmer of the 
outside and also on the inside, in your heart...seeing your shimmering self. 

An excerpt taken from The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge

"For what shall we do when we wake one day to find we have lost touch with our heart and with it the very refuge where God's presence resides?"

Starting very early, life has taught all of us to ignore and distrust the deepest yearnings of our heart. Life, for the most part, teaches us to suppress our longing and live only in the external world where efficiency and performance are everything. We have learned from parents and peers, at school, at work, and even from our spiritual mentors that something else is wanted from us other than our heart, which is to say, that which is most deeply us. Very seldom are we ever invited to live out of our heart. If we are wanted, we are often wanted for what we can offer functionally. If rich, we are honored for our wealth; if beautiful, for our looks, if intelligent, for our brains. So we learn to offer only those parts of us that are approved, living out a carefully crafted performance to gain acceptance from those who represent life to us. We divorce ourselves from our heart and begin to live a double life. Frederick Buechner expresses this phenomenon in his biographical work, Telling Secrets:

 "[Our ] original shimmering self gets buried so deep we hardly live out of it at all...rather, we learn to live out of all the other selves which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world's weather."

On the outside, there is the external story of our lives.  This is the life everyone sees, our life of work and play and church, of family and friends, paying bills, and growing older. Our external story is where we carve out the identity most others know. It is the place where we have learned to label each other in a way that implies we have reached our final destination. Here, busyness substitutes for meaning, efficiency substitutes for creativity, and functional relationships substitute for love. In the outer life we live from ought (I ought to do this) rather than from desire (I want to do this) and management substitutes for mystery. There are steps to a happy marriage, five ways to improve your portfolio, and seven habits for success.

The inner life, the story of our heart, is the life of the deep places within us, our passions and dreams, our fears and our deepest wounds. It is the unseen life, the mystery within-what Buechner calls our "shimmering self." It cannot be managed like a corporation. The heart does not respond to principles and programs; it seeks not efficiency, but passion. Art, poetry, beauty, mystery, ecstasy: These are what rouse the heart. Indeed, they are the language that must be spoken if one wishes to communicate with the heart. It is why Jesus so often taught and related to people by telling stories and asking questions. His desire was not just to engage their intellects but to capture their hearts.

Indeed, if we will listen, a Sacred Romance calls to us through our heart every moment of our lives. It whispers to us on the wind, invites us through the laughter of good friends, reaches out to us through the touch of someone we love. We've heard it in our favorite music, sensed it at the birth of our first child, been drawn to it while watching the shimmer of a sunset on the ocean. The Romance is even present in times of great personal suffering: the illness of a child, the loss of a marriage, the death of a friend. Something calls to us through experiences like these and rouses an inconsolable longing deep within our heart, wakening in us a yearning for intimacy, beauty, and adventure.

This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality. It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive. However we may describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life. And the voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God.

We cannot hear this voice if we have lost touch with our heart.

The true story of every person in this world is not the story you see, the external story. The true story of each person is the journey of his or her heart. Jesus himself knew that if people lived only in the outer story, eventually they would lose track of their inner life, the life of their heart.  
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Saying "Help" Is A Prayer

1/14/2020

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Minister and author, Michael Bernard Beckwith states that if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, then you need to get out of your own way. He says that you need something that gets you out of your little mind, your little perception, and that's where prayer and meditation come in. That's where you say, "Help. I'm open and I'm available to something new."

Just saying "
help" is a prayer. Michael shared this acronym for the word help:

H ello
E ternal
L oving
P resence

Michael's process of prayer I think is intriguing and a useful approach to prayer. Here's a summary of his prayer process.

1. Ask God Empowering Questions
During your prayer ask God an empowering question and then  be still, listen and be available. An empowering question includes questions like..."What's trying to emerge in my life?", "What's my gift to share?", "What's my purpose?", "Why am I here on the planet?", What's trying to unfold in my life and in my soul?", "What lesson am I learning?".

Disempowering questions sound like this..."What should I do?", "Why me?", "Who/what is to blame?", What's wrong with me?", "What's wrong with my life?", "Why is this happening to me?", "Why isn't life fair?".

Michael believes that if you ask an empowering question you'll get an answer that will help you to rise above the muck. Answers will come in the form of nudges, intuitive hits, dreams, and other signs and symbols. 


2. Listen, Be Still
Take time to be still and to know. Have faith that by being still you will know the next right thing to do. Your intuition will know, your gut will know, it will bubble up to the surface and you will know. Be still, be available, pay attention and have faith and trust that you will know.

3. Be Vibrationally Ready to Receive
Let go of resistance and be in alignment with it by asking "what if" questions and by visualizing.

Start asking "what if" questions..."What if all my needs were met, what would I be doing in my life?", "What if everything is really working together for my good?", "What if all of the bad things that happened in my life are leading me to activating some great potential?", "What if God is really on my side?" He says when you start asking "what if" questions, small miracles will start happening in your life.  

Begin to see, to visualize, the kind of life that you wish to live. Begin to talk about it, to write about it, to dream about it. Talk about the vision more than you talk about your problems. Give it energy, pay it attention. Talk about the possibility, even if you don't know how to get there. Talk to the vision and then after a while you will be talking from it.

By asking "what if" questions and visualizing you are becoming vibrationally ready to receive it. We are vibrational beings. You are drawing into you all the time the vibration that is most like what you are putting out. You cannot have what you're not willing to become vibrationally, you need to be aligned.

Michael believes that if you come from a place of I want, I want, I want then that will only create more want and it will block you from receiving your blessing. 

Michael shares how pain pushes until the vision pulls, being pulled by a larger vision. Walk in the direction of the potential and the possibility. Taking small right steps in that direction will help pull you out of the suffering, will help release you from being stuck in the muck. 


He says, "We are not praying that there aren't any challenges, we are praying that for the challenges that come that they activate latent potential." I love the perspective!

For times of deep need, where the challenge is great and we feel stuck in the muck, it's helpful to me to give my prayer some framework, some clear intention that is productive and useful in opening me up to God's message for me. 
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Deep Awareness

1/7/2020

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Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh says that, “Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.” I absolutely love this, it brings forth wonderful imagery. 

The word sacred means connected with God. Therefore, the quote becomes...each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes connected with God. 

I like to envision holding out my thought, or my action, in the sunlight of awareness and then ask myself, "Is this a godly thought, or is this a godly action?" That deep awareness of being connected with God, being one with all, and shining a bright ray of light on that deep awareness with the knowledge that it touches everything. 

This doesn't mean that we won't have challenging feelings like anger, frustration, sadness, etc. I'm not a proponent of sweeping these feelings under the rug and ignoring them. However, we can bring awareness to our feelings, to our thoughts, and reactions to those feelings.  A lot of times our thoughts and reactions to the feeling is the piece that causes us to get stuck. 

Yesterday I was reminded to "embrace the anger", to use it as fuel for positive change. This is a good example of how we can either choose to use our anger destructively and gear our thoughts and reactions toward things like vengeance, or we can use our anger productively toward something like steps to correct an injustice, etc. Anger can be a wonderful motivator, a change agent. 


Pastor and entrepreneur, Russ Ewell, explains that, “'Deep Awareness' is a spiritual sensitivity to God and his Word that awakens our conscience, and stirs up the transformative power of the Holy Spirit for change. This awareness keeps us from slipping back into old patterns of life or attitudes of mind. Most importantly, 'Deep Awareness' keeps us confident of God’s grace, so we can navigate the difficult or even discouraging stages of our spiritual journey, and reach the destiny to which God has called us."

In this new year, this new decade, I'm setting my intention to live with a deeper awareness, to bring my thoughts and actions into the sunlight of awareness, to continuously remember my connection to God and to all. 

​
Yoga instructor Lisa Mccormack sums it up beautifully, "When we walk united in deep awareness and stand undivided in our intention, our collective energy is exponentially magnified. Our brothers and sisters and the animals in Australia need this from us right now. The next person you meet needs this from us right now. You may need this from us right now. Join me in creating an energetic tapestry of compassion and hope to surround and comfort all living beings who are suffering in the world right now." 

​Amen
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